The Weekend Report: July 15, 2012

Ice Work If You Can Get It

Ice Age: Continental Shift – the fourth installment of the animated franchise – brrrrrought in an estimated $45.9 million in its debut to lead weekend movie going. It was the session’s only incoming wide national release.

In the niches a couple of Indian imports had solid bows. Bollywood’s Cocktail (unrelated to the early Tom Cruise vehicle) grossed $680,000 at 98 bars while Tamil Billa 2 opened with $115,000 from 33 screens. In Quebec Omerta, based on a popular TV series, had a potent $420,000 launch from 25 playdates following a $190,000 tally from its pre-weekend Wednesday debut.

Exclusive and limited bows included encouraging returns of $19,900 for non-fiction yarn The Imposter at a single venue as well as $71,700 at seven for French import Farewell My Queen and $23,500 for Sweden’s Easy Money at two sites. The intriguingly titled The Obama Effect, a drama set during the 2008 election, garnered $88,400 at 25 locations for an inconclusive second term.

Overall box office for the frame amassed close to $165 million that resulted in a 19% drop from last weekend. It was a sharper 39% decline from 2011 when the final installment of the Harry Potter set a record series opening of $169.2 million.

2012 box office crossed $6 billion this weekend and a little more than a half year into the calendar the pace of movie going is 10.5% ahead of last year.

Ice Age 4 is arriving on these shores after a two week head start internationally that’s generated more than $250 million. Apart from the very good news for Denis Leary – who is also featured in weekend runner-up The Amazing Spider-Man – the film debuted pretty much to expectation. Exit demos revealed a slim female bias of 50% and an audience composed equally of over/under 25 year olds; presumably some willingly in tow with their youngsters.